[Social Mess-up]~When Emotions become Reactions…

17Oct

Emotions are known to be something that we humans have aplenty in abundance. We emote at anything and in any situation. Emotions could be varied – good, bad, happy, sad and so on. But there is a vast difference when one shows off his/her emotions in person and when online.
Emotions displayed online, are mostly reactions is what I feel. Let me take two similar cases of such reactions on FaceBook (FB).

#1 Picture this one sad tale:
As usual, I was logged into FB on that Thursday night. A friend who had got married over a year ago, but had not shared his wedding photos on FB, had finally relented to the umpteen requests by his friends by posting about 2-3 photos of the memorable occasion.

Legend has it that, if something is not already on FB, it has never happened.

Anyway…one particular photo of the newly married couple sitting on stage, was trending, with friends ‘like’ing and posting wishes in the comment section. Now knowing him in person, I was aware that it was an old photograph. Yet, I followed others in wishing him….a mere reaction! He replied to all our comments, till about 9:30 pm that night.

Friday:
I do not get to log into FB during the day time on weekdays, but I do get notifications on email/cellphone. One notification mail on that particular wedding photo read “How could this happen to you, you being such a sweet person?!”
I was kind of surprised as to why would someone say something like that on a wedding picture.

On reaching home, I first logged in to FB via that notification link to check why such a comment was made in such a happy picture. And that is when I got to know!
Unfortunately, it so happened that that very night this friend of mine had succumbed to a blockage in his heart artery (he was diagnosed & being treated for acidity, I’m told)! 😦

But then the downfalls of a social network is such that, the picture you post in an album in your profile appears on the wall of your friends! And in this case, his wedding photograph continued to get wishes…some of which were very heart wrenching like “you both look lovely…may you have many more years of happiness” and others alike.

Again a case of mere reactions!! Hmm..

#2 Two weeks ago:
On a Monday morning, my cousin’s Labrador ‘Buddy’ died.
Four years ago, when I had just joined FB I had posted a picture of Buddy & me….which had received about 2 likes and 4 comments till then.
That Monday evening, I expressed my condolences on that picture tagging my cousin. He himself had not seen that 4 yr old picture till that moment! 😛

Now for the reaction part:
Since I had dug and commented on an old picture, it was now on the walls of my FB friends.
Since they had never seen two animals in one frame they were excited which were reflected by the 25+ “likes” I got within an hour. 😉 Reaction #1.
A few of them who knew about the death put in their condolences in form of words or sad-smileys (oxymoron?) while the unaware rest discussed about how good the two look together! Reaction #2.
And then when they got to know about the actual, then they conveyed their condolences. Reaction #3.

A true portrayal of the comments and likes on Facebook!! While at times you are laughing out loud, there are times when you don’t know what to do…
Like… somebody posted a status ” Terrible headache” (Now, that’s another story that people put anything and everything on FB). He got 2 likes for this status!!!! 😐

@Shilpa, yea…there is always this in between confused state that is tough to imagine!!
Haha…dont even talk about what all statuses ppl ending up liking! Stupid ones are still ok…but the sad ones just cannot be digested!!
Thanks a lot! 🙂

Follow me!! :)

Me! Myself! Moi!

Though unaware, I'm usually up to something. I'm an ex-introvert who talks more than he write and writes more than he's capable of. I try to make light of everything, for I believe that I'm stuck in a dark tunnel.
All said and done, I named this blog space as 'All in the Mind...', for the very lack of it.